Workout Plan and Diet lists looking for suggestions

[chisness]

I'm 21, 6'1", and weigh about 175. My goal is mostly just to be healthy and fit (I guess that's obvious), but not necessarily extremely strong. I value not getting tired while walking a golf course or playing a long tennis match more than winning a fight or lifting 300 pound objects.

Not sure if a picture helps, but here's one:


I'd appreciate any advice/changes for my workout plan and diet.

<u>Workout Plan</u>
I try to workout at least 3 times a week (is there a good goal I should have here?) I do 3 sets of 10 reps on everything unless I note otherwise. I also pick a weight such that I can finish all 30 reps at that weight. Should I be increasing the weight every set? Should I be reducing the reps per set?

Probably the most important question is if there are any muscles, as minor as they may seem, I should be working that I’m missing?

Day 1: Legs
1. Leg press
2. Thing where you push up shoulders with bottom of legs by going on tip toes (sorry don't know name)
3. Thing where you tuck your legs down then push them out
4. Opposite of 3, where you have your legs straigh out and then push down

Day 2: Biceps and some other stuff
1. Curls with free weights (sitting down, 30 of each left and right arm)
2. Row machine? where you pull weight from machine and lean back
3. Shoulder thing with free weights where you lift both arms to the side at the same time
4. Curls with bar (each set: 7 curling just wrist (does doing this on other side of wrist do anything for other side of forearm?), 7 lifting bar half way, and 7 curling all the way to the chest)

Day 3: Triceps and some other stuff
1. Bench
2. Inclined bench with free weights
3. Tricep pull down

All Days
1. 100 situps (excessive, reasonable, something I can do to make these work better?)
2. 30 upper leg exercise where you lie on back with knees up and spread them down to the sides
3. 30 lower back exercise where you lie on your stomach and lift your shoulders/head up
4. Either 1-2 miles of cardio or tennis (is tennis good enough in itself if I were able to play 3 times a week or does cardio do something tennis won't -- are there any cardio machines that are particularly good, does it help to switch these around or just do pure running?)


<u>Food</u>
I eat very plain foods and drink almost exclusively water -- no alcohol or soda. I also drink gatorade when doing something athletic. I also have a multivitamin (Centrum Chewable) once daily. I don’t really have any weight goals and never stop myself from eating when I’m hungry, which I think has somehow worked alright so far. My goals are just to be well rounded and healthy.

Breakfast
At minimum (pretty often just this), I'll have a banana. At maximum I'll also have honey nut cheerios w/ 2% milk, scrambled eggs, and waffles or pancakes (usually a banana and one of these options).

Lunch
Usually will have a turkey sandwich on multigrain wheat with chips. Sometimes this will be a PB&amp;J sandwich and very rarely a grilled cheese sandwich. Occasionally this will be fried chicken and fries (should probably avoid this as much as possible?) I will also rarely have chicken fingers and fries from a fast food place.

Dinner
About 2/3 of the time I have white rice w/ butter and half a rotisserie chicken. My other main meal is multigrain pasta w/ butter with plain salmon. I'll occasionally have cheese pizza or just pasta. I'll also sometimes have a baked potato with these meals. My dessert will usually be a brownie. I often notice that I don’t eat much early in the day, then after dinner I just keep loading on the snacks.

Snacks
I am a HUGE carrot eater. I probably average at least 1 lb. a day. This is causing my skin to be pretty orange, but I believe this isn't a health concern. My other main snack is low fat wheat thins. I also sometimes have apples, popcorn, and cookies/candy bars.

[snakekilla88]

Definitely bulk up so that you can protect me from argoe. Seems like a healthy plan, GL.

Sincerly,

James

[Thremp]

Scratch your workout plan. Do Starting Strength. Read the FAQ FFS.

[chisness]

thanks, i did read the top part of the FAQ then skimmed those links. i plan on switching to that asap.

[theblackkeys]

[ QUOTE ]
thanks, i did read the top part of the FAQ then skimmed those links. i plan on switching to that asap.

[/ QUOTE ]
SS will get your whole body (pretty much) worked out every workout, and you only have to do 3 exercises/15 sets total to do so. You add weight (progress) each time which I think helps with motivation. Also, just 3 workouts a week. Very simple and a lot of fun.

[chisness]

Questions about SS:

1) How necessary/useful are warmup sets?

2) How much time is usually spent stretching before the workout?

3) Roughly how long do people stay with this program before they "outgrow" it and move on to a more advanced program?

4) Are there some basic cardio guidelines in terms of time per workout and which bikes/treadmills/cross trainers are best?

5) I took note of the gradual additions of things like pullups and abs -- does 2+2 specifically recommend certain additional programming or do we agree that the program is very well rounded and I should just add in the extra programming as said on the SS forum FAQ page?

[Thremp]

1) Very useful. I'd do them.
2) None. Stretch post.
3) Until they stop improving on it.
4) Do HIIT 2x a week unless you just love long runs.
5) Its fine the way it is.

[theblackkeys]

[ QUOTE ]
Questions about SS:

1) How necessary/useful are warmup sets?

2) How much time is usually spent stretching before the workout?

3) Roughly how long do people stay with this program before they "outgrow" it and move on to a more advanced program?

4) Are there some basic cardio guidelines in terms of time per workout and which bikes/treadmills/cross trainers are best?

5) I took note of the gradual additions of things like pullups and abs -- does 2+2 specifically recommend certain additional programming or do we agree that the program is very well rounded and I should just add in the extra programming as said on the SS forum FAQ page?

[/ QUOTE ]
1) Very
2) just be able to get into the bottom position of the squat, so probably do some bodyweight squats. You don't need to do static stretching.
3) TimM has been on it for a long time. Even if you stop adding weight each workout (stalling), you can reset and you will get a little more improvement.
5)The program allows you to add pullups and dips, 2x8, to the end of a workout. Don't do both on the same day. You could probably do abs as well, but you don't want to wreck your ab muscles because you'll be squatting in two days and core strength is important. So if you do do it, don't overdo it. get what i mean?